The co-operation with the Universitas Indonesia (UI) goes back
to the year 1997. In the course of the first education exhibition
where the DAAD introduced the newly established internationally
oriented courses, personal contacts between Prof. Dr.-Ing. Axel
Hunger and lecturers from the faculty of engineering at the
UI was established. A few years later, in 2003, the Mercator
office at the UI could be ceremoniously opened and run.

The UI-Mercator office îs like a facility of the faculty
of engineering of the University of Duisburg-Essen and is located
on the UI campus within spitting distance of the faculty of
engineering. It ensures the long-lasting presence of the UDE
not only at the UI, but also in the entire republic of Indonesia
and the bordering countries.

The bureau is equipped with a secretariat and a multimedia
laboratory equipped with the most modern computer technology.
The construction of the Mercator bureau and the multimedia laboratory
was made possible via the funding from Stiftung Mercator GmbH,
Essen, which supports the BRIDGE project (Deutsch-Asiatische
Hochschulallianz in den Ingenieurwissenschaften Teilprojekt
Präsenz in Asien). With furtherance from the BRIDGE project
emerged in addition a second Mercator bureau at the Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia.

The original goal of the BRIDGE project was the institutionalisation
of collaboration between the partner universities. The support
and further development of commonly borne courses in engineering
with double-degrees evolved into a special point of emphasis.
In the course of this, a Masters course in computer engineering
was established. This program has a high reputation in Indonesia
and is meanwhile being supported for students of the UI with
state scholarships of the Indonesian government.

Even in the domain of research, both partners cooperate with
each other in several ways. On the one hand, a brisk exchange
of scientists emerged; on the other hand, common projects could
be carried out e.g. with furtherance from the European Union
within the scope of the ASIA-Link program. The Mercator bureau
also played an important role at the UI during the fund-raising
of several national research projects of the Indonesian government.

In January 2007, the Mercator bureau moved to the newly erected
Engineering Center at the UI. The UI Mercator bureau connects
therewith the biggest Indonesian technology centre (Engineering
Center) with German economy and science.